(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- Property rights, or the lack of them, are central to all contemporary political philosophies. Marxism rejects property rights outright, as explained by Karl Marx in the second chapter of his Communist Manifesto: “the theory of Communists may be summed up in a single phrase: Abolition of private property."

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- Memes is the neologism coined by British scientist Richard Dawkins to explain the way in which ideas and behaviors are transmitted in society by non-genetic means in contrast with transmission by genes. For instance, a child constantly exposed to home violence may come to accept violence as natural.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net) Classical liberalism is the tradition of ethical, political, legal, and economic thought that centers on individual liberties. For libertarians, individual freedoms are dominant. This view is in sharp contrast with all forms of collectivism where the collective is considered the organizing principle for policy making, and group rights trump individual rights.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- The use of economic sanctions as a tool of foreign policy is not new. In 431 B.C., Pericles’ banned the Megarians from the Athenian market and ports helping to incite the Peloponnesian Wars. Today, economic sanctions are at the center of negotiations with Iran and Cuba. And yet, many in the nations enacting sanctions, as well as in the targeted nations misconstrue their use and impact. Let’s take the case of Cuba.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- Following President Obama’s announcement of a rapprochement with the Cuban regime, U.S. government officials have offered that fostering the small enterprise sector in Cuba is a centerpiece of the new policy.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- “I told you so” is a childish, inelegant expression unbecoming any thoughtful essayist. Forgive me, but that is what my heart screamed when reading General Castro’s demands for normalizing relations with the United States.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- Editor’s note: José Azel presented his original testimony, “What Would Cuba Do?” to the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs on February 26. Watch the full video of the hearing at the bottom of this article, with Azel at 27:58.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- Democracy is an abnormal and unnatural political system. This is the view held by all authoritarian and totalitarian regimes and their want-to-be sycophants. And, in one respect, they are right. A liberal democracy aberrantly requires those holding power to respect statutory constraints on their powers and, even more unnatural, to enable processes that may remove them from power.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- The Cuban succession conjecture pastime began in earnest in 2006 when an aged and ailing Fidel Castro transferred power to his younger brother Raul. With General Castro now 83 years old, the speculation continues as to whom, in the younger generation of Cuban military officers and political apparatchiks, will succeed him.